Florida says AP class teaches critical race theory. Here's what's really in the course

Florida's Department of Education has rejected an Advanced Placement course covering African American Studies — saying the class indoctrinates students to "a political agenda."

"As submitted, the course is a vehicle for a political agenda and leaves large, ambiguous gaps that can be filled with additional ideological material, which we will not allow," said Bryan Griffin, Gov. Ron DeSantis' press secretary.

But scholars who were involved in creating the curriculum say that's far from the truth.

"There's nothing particularly ideological about the course except that we value the experiences of African people in the United States," Christopher Tinson, the chair of the African American Studies department at Saint Louis University, told NPR.

The course is the latest addition to the AP program, which helps high school students earn college credit. The class is currently undergoing a pilot phase. Sixty schools were participating in that trial run, including at least one high school in Florida, But state officials have taken issue with the possibility that the course would teach about Black Lives Matter and the reparations movement.

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/22/1150259944/florida-rejects-ap-class-african-american-studies

Fascists are afraid of everything

Cali. Shooting Suspect Met Ex at Studio He Shot Up: Report

The ex-wife of the suspected gunman who killed 10 people and injured another 10 in a horror shooting at a California dance studio has provided telling insight into her ex-husband’s life as rumors swirl over the possible motive for his actions.

The woman, who spoke to CNN and asked not to be named, said the pair met at the same dance studio he shot up late Saturday night. Huu Can Tran filed for a divorce from her in 2005, which became final a year later.

Her account was verified by her sister, who also spoke to CNN. The Daily Beast has contacted the ex-wife for comment.

Before opening fire at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, Tran, a 72-year-old Chinese immigrant, was a regular, even providing “informal” lessons at the venue. It remains unclear if he had visited at all in recent years.

The pair met two decades ago at a dance where Tran introduced himself and offered to teach her for free. They married soon after. He wasn’t violent, she said, though he “was quick to anger.”

This manifested in various ways—including while they were dancing. If she took a wrong step, he would occasionally blow up, she claimed.

Tran’s affiliation with the dance hall was also backed by a “long-time acquaintance,” who also wished to remain anonymous, and who told CNN he would make the five-minute drive to the dance hall “almost every night.” The friend was reportedly a close friend of Tran between the late 2000’s and early 2010’s.

They painted a slightly harsher picture of Tran than the ex-wife, describing how he was “hostile to a lot of people” at the dance studio and that he believed other instructors said “evil things about him.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/california-shooting-suspect-met-ex-wife-at-same-studio-he-shot-up-report?ref=home

Paranoia strikes deep...into your life it will creep...

17-Year-Old's Locker Room Freakout Became Anti-Trans Crusade

On Jan. 11, 17-year-old Rebecca Phillips approached the lectern at a sparsely attended city council meeting in Santee, a suburb of San Diego, California. No item on the agenda brought her to city hall that night. Instead, she tearfully recounted how a local YMCA had followed state law and company policy by allowing a transgender woman to use the same locker room that she did. She had no contact with the woman and claimed only to have seen her, but the experience left her “terrified,” she said.

From there, a symbiotic network of local and national right-wing media began passing the story upwards, catapulting Phillips to the airwaves of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight in just six days. But while Phillips earned the adulation of a constellation of conservative and far-right actors—including a former politician himself accused of sexual misconduct in public bathrooms—the subject of her outburst became a national target.

Christynne Lili Wrene Wood, a 66-year-old Navy veteran and retired civil servant, had just returned home from a trip to Palm Springs when a friend from her beloved aqua aerobics class sent her a video on Instagram of Phillips speaking at the city council.

“I just started crying and crying and shaking,” she told The Daily Beast. “I’m neither Sigmund Freud nor Carl Jung; I don’t know what evil pathology drives that. But there’s always got to be that convenient boogeyman. There’s always gonna be that ‘other’ that threatens ‘us.’”

If drag shows have been one focus of recent extremist rage at the LGBTQ community, it appears as if YMCAs may be emerging as a new proving ground for right-wing culture warriors. If so, the story of Rebecca Phillips points to just how swiftly that process can take off.

Phillips’ comments galvanized an existing network of right wing and far-right groups in greater San Diego, according to local disinformation researcher and journalist Brooke Binkowski. “There’s a very strong streak of far-right ideology here that has been here for generations,” she told The Daily Beast.

Santee specifically has an established reputation of extremism, earning it the moniker “Klantee.” The city has tried multiple times over the years to rehabilitate its image, most recently after news coverage of a man shopping at a local Vons wearing a Klan-style hood followed by a separate incident of a Santee Food 4 Less customer wearing a swastika face mask.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-a-santee-california-ymca-locker-room-freakout-became-an-anti-trans-crusade?ref=home

Story is even crazier and more horrifying if you read it all the way through.

Iowa GOP Moves To Stop SNAP Users From Buying White Rice, Fresh Meat And More

A new bill introduced by Iowa House Republicans last week could drastically cut the types of food that people in the state can buy using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

SNAP, previously known as the Food Stamp Program, is a form of federal food assistance for people with low to no income. Recipients can use SNAP benefits to purchase various items at the grocery store, including fruits, vegetables, meat, bread, snacks and more.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service runs the SNAP program. The new bill, brought forward on Jan. 11, proposes that Iowa request a waiver from the USDA to let it limit the foods that can be purchased with SNAP benefits inside the state. The USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.

The proposed waiver would restrict SNAP purchases to items that appear on the state’s approved food list for a different federal initiative, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. Also known as WIC, the program provides food assistance for pregnant people, new mothers and young children, and it is significantly more limited than SNAP.

“Iowans on SNAP would not be able to buy meat, flour, butter, cooking oil, frozen prepared foods,” Luke Elzinga, the chair of the nonprofit Iowa Hunger Coalition, told Iowa’s News Now. “It’s a huge list.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/iowa-gop-snap-bill-meat-cheese-white-bread-food-stamps_n_63cc0850e4b04d4d18df3b43

DAGUQ? Now it's just "starve 'em out"?

Pregnant WNBA Star: I Was 'Discriminated Against' With Trade

Pregnant WNBA star Dearica Hamby was traded Saturday from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and responded with a scathing Instagram post saying she was “lied to, bullied, manipulated, and discriminated against.”

Hamby, who has a 5-year-old daughter, announced in September during the Aces’ championship parade that she was pregnant with her second child.

The 29-year-old claims the Aces, where she has spent her entire pro career, subjected her to “unprofessional and unethical” treatment that left her traumatized before they sent her packing.

“I was accused of signing my extension knowingly pregnant. This is false,” she wrote. “I was told that I was ‘a question mark’ and that it was said that I said I would ‘get pregnant again’ and there was a concern for my level of commitment to the team.”

“I was told that ‘I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain’ (Because ‘no one expected me to get pregnant in the next two years.’) Did the team expect me not to get pregnant in exchange for the contract extension?” she added.

“I was asked if I planned my pregnancy. When I responded ‘no,’ I was then told I ‘was not taking precautions to not get pregnant.’ I was being traded because I would not be ready and we need bodies.’”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pregnant-wnba-star-dearica-hamby-las-vegas-aces-discriminated-against-me

Buffalo Rose - Born

Florida Explains Black History Class Ban--and It's a Doozy

The Florida Department of Education says it banned AP African American History because it teaches students about activism, intersectionality and encourages “ending the war on Black trans, queer, gender non-conforming, and intersex people,” according to a document the department sent to The Daily Beast.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected a request from the College Board to provide the class in high school classes in the state Wednesday. The move comes in the same week the far-right Republican—who a judge just ruled violated free speech laws by firing a prosecutor for being “woke”—requested info on trans students from universities state-wide.

DeSantis’ administration further made their anti-LGBTQ stance known in their explanation for prohibiting the class, simply listing “Black Queer Studies” as a violation of state law.

A representative for DeSantis said the now-banned class “lacks educational value and historical accuracy” in a statement to The Daily Beast.

The document further admonishes the teaching of intersectionality, claiming it is “foundational to” Critical Race Theory, without explaining how.

The department also takes issue with topics advocating for reparations—a movement with the goal of helping recipients overcome generations of human rights violations.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/florida-department-of-education-gives-bizarre-reasoning-for-banning-ap-african-american-history?ref=home

Everyone say it with me--DeSatan is a FASCIST.

Tracy Nelson - Seven Bridges Road

Tracy Nelson--Ruler of My heart

School downplayed warnings about 6-year-old before teacher's shooting, staffers say

The Virginia teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student repeatedly asked administrators for help with the boy but officials downplayed educators’ warnings about his behavior, including dismissing his threat to light a teacher on fire and watch her die, according to messages from teachers obtained by The Washington Post.

The previously unreported incidents raise fresh questions about how Richneck Elementary School in Newport News handled the troubled student before police say he shot Abigail Zwerner as she taught her first-grade class earlier this month. Authorities have called the shooting “intentional” but are still investigating the motive.

Many parents are already outraged over Richneck officials’ management of events before the shooting. Newport News Superintendent George Parker III has said school officials got a tip the boy had a gun that day and searched his backpack, but that staffers never found the weapon before authorities say the 6-year-old shot Zwerner. Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said his department was not contacted about the report that the boy had a weapon before the shooting.

Police and school officials have repeatedly declined to answer questions about the boy’s disciplinary issues or worrisome behaviors the 6-year-old may have exhibited and how school officials responded, citing the child’s age and the ongoing law enforcement investigation. The boy’s family said in a statement he has an “acute disability,” but James Ellenson, an attorney for the family, declined to comment on accounts of the boy’s behavior or how it was handled by the school.

School district spokeswoman Michelle Price said in a phone interview late Friday that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law protecting students’ privacy, prohibits her from releasing information related to the 6-year-old.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/01/21/richneck-elementary-school-shooting-warnings-downplayed/

Where have we heard this before? This kid sounds like a wee psychopath.